A 12-YEAR-old girl from Bromsgrove has been talking about her debilitating illness at the House of Commons.

Ella Ellis, from Aston Fields developed immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) almost two years ago, a condition where her body destroys the platelets in her blood leading to the risk of serious or even fatal bleeding.

People coping with the condition, which has no cure, can suffer from nose bleeds, huge multi-coloured bruises, and even spontaneous bleeding into major organs.

Miss Ellis went down to the House of Commons as part of a tea party to raise awareness of her condition, being hosted in the Jubilee Room by Alistair Burt MP.

Several MPs were in attendance, as well as most of the UKs leading experts on ITP, other sufferers and family members.

Two adults sufferers described their lives with ITP, and in between their talks, Miss Ellis described her own frightening experiences over the last two years.

Ella said: “As a chronic ITP sufferer, having ITP has often been very difficult for me. I have had lots of visits to hospital which have often been quite scary but I am very grateful to all the staff at my local hospitals for looking after me so well and to the ITP Support Association for all their help and advice.”

Her mum Tina Ellis stood next to her during the speech.

She added: “Everybody was just gobsmacked in the room, she was really good.

“We’ve been quite isolated since Ella was first diagnosed. There’s not that many people of her age around her that have got that experience, so it was really nice to meet other people who had similar experiences.”

Ella had her spleen removed recently in an attempt to combat the effect of her ITP, and following her speech, she and her mum are campaigning to local MP Sajid Javid for the NHS to give free prescriptions to people with splenectomies.